SI adoption in high school athletics

This page tracks the adoption of the SI (modern metric system) by high schools for their athletics programs in each US state.

Background

All levels of US Track and Field events metricated their track events in the 1970s, with 400 m outdoor tracks replacing 440 yard tracks, and 200 m indoor tracks replacing 220 yard tracks. The field events (jumps and throws) were slower to metricate, but collegiate and USATF field events have used metric measures for twenty years or more. However, US high schools have continued to primarily use feet and inches to measure field events.

Benefits

The use of metric measures in high school field events offers advantages to the track and field community:

1. The athletes learn their performance in metric measures in high school and are better prepared for all higher levels of competition in the US and internationally, which already use metric measures.
2. High school meets typically measure with long tapes, record results on paper sheets, and later transcribe them into electronic result records. A jump of 4.73 m is easier to write, read, and transcribe than 15-6¼, especially when handwritten, leading to error reduction. It also improves the commonization of officiating events at high school, NCAA, and USATF events.
3. It provides better compliance with NFHS Rule 6 in measuring shot put long jump, and triple jump. Dean Hays is a math teacher in Missouri and the Treasurer of the Missouri Track and Cross-Country Coaches Association. In 2017, he wrote an essay on apparent measurement issues in Missouri track meets. This analysis was a factor in Missouri’s decision to adopt metric measures for field events.
   • The main point of this article is that the fractional part of the inches in measurement of long jump, triple jump, and shot put should be uniformly, randomly distributed across the possible quarter inch values of 0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, and it substantially isn’t, showing a strong bias towards whole inch and half inch results. This is inconsistent with rule 6 requiring measurement to the lesser quarter inch. He then went on to look at Florida results before and after their conversion to metric field event measures.
   • A sample like this can be tested by the Pearson chi square test to assess whether the result could be attributed to statistical variation (the null hypothesis) or attributed to some causality (the alternate hypothesis). We have prepared a small sample of California meet data, reported in the attached Excel spreadsheet. Those meets show an anomalous variation from the “expected” uniform random distribution at far greater than 95% confidence.

Field Event Early Adopters

In 2017, Florida used metric field measures at the state championship levels and recommended its use by all Florida schools. For the 2018 season, they required it for all Florida high school field events. Florida was followed by Illinois and Missouri in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Field events in Florida, Illinois, and Missouri are now recorded in metres, with two decimals, representing the lesser whole centimetre measured for all events. Field events in all other states are measured in feet and inches to the quarter inch for most events, but only to the inch for long throws.

Additional Information

• Florida:  New Rule Implements Use of Metric Measurement in All Field Events
  • Florida High School Athletic Association Track & Field Manual (see section 4.14.1.1.1.1)
• Illinois: IHSA Track & Field Metric Manual for Field Events
• Missouri: Missouri State High School Track and Field Manual
  • Dean Hays Essay
  • Pearson Chi Square Test
• Colorado: “Track & Field: Measuring a Better Way”

Last updated: 2025-04-07